Generation Numbers

[rvoorhees 0]

We have a large TMG database with 12 or 13 generations. Is there a way to mark each individual in the database with a generation number in relation to the original ancestor.

[John Cardinal 0]

No, and yes.

 

I don't know of any function in TMG to assign a generation number to people. When you generate various reports, the report writer will add generation numbers but they are calculated dynamically.

 

If you can use one of those reports to produce the generation numbers, and you can modify the report output into a "id#, generation#" format, then TMG Utility will assign the generations to the people for you. See the Set Person Field function.

 

Let me warn you, however, that making the transaction file won't be easy.

[Guest ProudFossil]

No, and yes.

 

I don't know of any function in TMG to assign a generation number to people. When you generate various reports, the report writer will add generation numbers but they are calculated dynamically.

 

If you can use one of those reports to produce the generation numbers, and you can modify the report output into a "id#, generation#" format, then TMG Utility will assign the generations to the people for you. See the Set Person Field function.

 

Let me warn you, however, that making the transaction file won't be easy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I use a very simple method to calculate the generation number. I am in generation 1, my parents in 2, my grandparents in 3, etc., etc. My children are in (-1), my grandchildren in (-2), etc., etc. If you take the relationship given by the relationship calculator in TMG for other than cousins you add 3 to the number of greats. Eg. great-grandaunt is in generation 4, 3rd great-grandfather is in generation 6. For cousins you add one to the number of times removed. Eg. 5th cousin 7 times removed is in generation 8, 23rd cousin is in generation 1 (0 + 1).

 

It does get a little tricky for descendant generations from you. The calculator gets hung on the same number of removes for some reason. So you have to manually calculate those.

 

Turn on the calculator through File, Preferences, Current Project Options, Other. Click on the Automatic "Relation" tag and place your id (or the chosen one) in the focus box. Then OK.

 

You can then click on the "Relation" tag to get the calculated relationship(s). I always use the first given to determine the generation. I have a custom tag with the sentence of "[P] is in generation [M]." to record the generation number in the Person View.

 

Bear in mind if you have a large file, 10,000 or more, you will notice a decrease in the processing speed since the program will try to generate the current value for the Relation event.

 

Have fun.

Michael Dietz

[rvoorhees 0]

Thank you for your responses.

 

I hope adding a feature such as this will be considered in future versions of TMG. We have over 21,000 Voorhees in our TMG database. Its impossible to quickly keep track of which people are in which generation. We are working now especially on the 9th generation. So it would be nice to see a generation number on each Voorhees so we can identify a person's generation at a glance. 9th generation people can then get emphasis.

[Louis Forget 0]

We have a large TMG database with 12 or 13 generations. Is there a way to mark each individual in the database with a generation number in relation to the original ancestor.

 

I have a similar dataset, and I have devised a flag that identifies the generation number of each descendant of a particular ancestor. Once you have such a flag, you may be able to use it to highlight the members of a generation, as you have mentioned.

 

Here is the routine.

 

Assume that the common ancestor is x (generation 1), and that there are 13 generations of descendants.

 

This routine uses a custom flag to identify generations. Custom flag values can consist of only one character. If you had ten generations or less, the simplest would be to use numbers to represent the generations. Since you have more than ten generations, you must use either a set of letters (A,B,C, ... M), or a combination of numbers and letters (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,A,B,C, for example).

 

1. Create a new flag (call it "Descendant of x"), with the values "N" (default), and one value representing each generation of descendants (A,B,C, ... M, or 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,A,B,C, for example). All persons in the dataset now have this flag set at N.

 

2. Do a List of Persons report where the people included are all the descendants of x (select a filtered group in which the selection criteria is "ID no. is x's no., and the number of descendant generations is 13). In the Report Options Secondary Output tab, set Change Flag to "Descendant of x" from N to the value of the generation most remote from the ancestor (in our case, the value representing the 13th generation). Run the report. All x's descendants now have a flag value representing the 13th generation (let's call it "13").

 

2. Run the same report again, this time in the filter definition set the number of generations at 12 and in the Secondary Output, set the Change Flag to change values from "13" to "12" (i.e., the value representing the 13th generation to the value representing the 12th generation). Now all members of the 13th generation continue to have their flag set at "13", and all the other descendants of x have their flag at "12".

 

3. Run the same report again, this time set the number of generations at 11 and the Change Flag to go from "12" to "11". Now all members of the 13th generation have the flag set a "13", the members of the 12th generation have it set at "12" and all other descendants of x have it set at "11".

 

4. Run the same report, each time reducing the number of generations and the flag values by one until you reach generation 2. All the descendants of x will have the flag set at a value representing "their" generation.

 

If you mess up, as I did when I started doing this, just delete the flag and start again. Once you get the hang of it, it is a fairly simple routine.

 

I hope it works for you.

 

Louis Forget

[elevator 0]

If you have traced your roots as far back as that you may encounter some problems counting generations because of intermarriage. I have more than a dousin lines that are the results of intermarriage and where one family member that married another family member in a previous or later generation and thus became offset as far as the generation number is concerned. I have one extreme case of this where one of my family members is the member of 4 different generations only because he had children with several women from a very early age to a very old age and it so happened all these women had children who eventually was tied back into the family tree. I only know this because before switching to TMG I used Sierra Generations which did show generation numbers and on the reports I would see the same person appearing in four different generations.

 

I don't know how Sierra implemented the feature of showing all generations a person is a member of, but I suspect it may be quite processor intensive.

 

Ken.